Hello Everyone! - I'm New

[Antoniakr]

Hello everyone, i am new to this forum. i have decided to start using forums as i want to note everything i learn down so i will never forget. And getting help from experienced fish keepers will be fantastic.

I am going to start breeding Platys. I still need to buy everything yet but i know most things about the fish already. You guys can help me with the rest of my unanswered questions  

My name is Antonia, I'm From England. I have developed this obsession over getting started with fish keeping. I know it will be great hobby for me and i know i'm going to enjoy it very much.

If anyone would like to give me a few tips on Platies then i'd appreciate it very much.

Hope you all have a great day

 

[Stimo]

welcome , i'm sure there will be plenty of people on here to help

 

[Ninjouzata]

to TFF! I hope you enjoy it here.
 
Have not kept platies so can't help there, sorry. :c

 

[Antoniakr]

Thank you both im sure it will help me a lot being on here

 

[Barb-barian]

 to the site.  lots of good info here.  Platys are a hardy and the males are horny as hell in my experience. Actually had to get rid of my male cause my females kept getting preggers.  They are a brackish fish so adding salt to the tank will be good for them.  Get a good female to male ratio id do at least 3:1 to alleviate the stress of those horny guys. Maybe even more females.  They give birth to live young so jus got to keep and eye out for the little ones once they get pregnant.  Will need to get a breeder box cause they are fat butts and will eat the poor little guys given the chance.  Jus feed the fry crushed up flakes until they grow a bit then you can put them back into the tank once they are big enough.  All in all they are pretty easy fish and you shouldn't run into to many problems as long as you have good water conditions.   

 

[mrstwalker]

Hi there! Im Taylor and I LOVE LOVE LOVE Platys as well! I am getting ready to start up a Platy breeding tank as well! What are some of your colors? What sized tank?

 

[Antoniakr]

Thank you and thank you for the information i will get a bigger tank for the fry to live in, as i was planning on buying 3 females to 1 male. and im sure they will have plenty babies.

Do you know what age Fry reach sexual maturity? also how old are then when you can make out the gender of the fish.

Because i was planning on putting a tank divider in, to separate the males and females so it doesn't become cramped with more fry! Haha

Also i was wondering, if i got a blue mickey mouse and a tuxedo platy, could i end up with a blue tuxedo platy? or a tuxedo mickey platy?

Thank you for the info again

Hello there! I think platys are gorgeous, i have a 10 gallon tank, what is the minimum size for Platys but i will only get 3-4 of them to go into the tank, i havent got any yet but the colours i really like are - 

Blue mickey mouse Platy
White mickey mouse platy
Tuxedo Platy
Sunset platy
And i like any colour variation of the spotted/speckled platys 

I'm going to get a larger tank for the female to have her Fry in, i'm not too sure what the size is because i couldn't get to it in the Pet shop, but it looks bigger than a 10Gal. 

What colours are you thinking of getting?

 

[mrstwalker]

I love all mickey mouse platys, they are so cute! i have got a  red/orange male wagtail platy, im going to attempt to breed and get a deeper red platy. a 10gal tank is perfect for platys. all the fry would really need is a 1.5gal tank with a bubble system and heater. best of luck!

 

[Antoniakr]

I love them too and im going to be growing them out to almost adult size and probably sell them, because i wouldn't have enough room for the new fry, this is why i need a big tank for the fry Also im going to separate the male and female fry just so they cant have more babies, Haha.

Thank you 

 

[Tongue_Flicker]

Hey antonia welcome aboard!

 

[Antoniakr]

Thank you!

 

[AquaPit]

Welcome!

Wish you all the best in the Platy project!

 

[Antoniakr]

Thank you! im determined to make it happen! i absolutely love platys  

 

[daizeUK]

Hi Antonia! I keep red mickey mouse, sunset and wagtail platies. I enjoyed seeing the babies at first but recently split up the males and females because I couldn't keep up with the huge numbers of fry they were producing! I keep the females in a 64L tank and the males have gone into a 120L community tank. I also have a dedicated grow-out tank for the juveniles. The pregnant females and fry stay in the 64L where there is plenty of moss and foliage for fry to hide in.

I wouldn't recommend keeping platies in less than 60L/17G/60cm tank as minimum space requirements. The females are larger than the males and many people will recommend that they should ideally have even more space than that.

The males will reach sexual maturity at around 4-7 months. Some delay their development and you might mistake them for females and then get a surprise later! Watch out for the anal fin showing signs of elongating and changing from a triangle to a more pointed shape. That's when it's a good idea to separate the males from the females, before the gonopodium becomes functional. The females are probably already sexually mature by the time the males get this far.

I have found that the parent characteristics are often not as strong in mixed-race platies. For example the mickey mouse 'face' might not appear as strongly coloured in their half-sunset offspring.

Make sure you definitely have somewhere for the young platies to go. I find myself taking about a dozen young platies to the LFS every 2-4 weeks

I grow them out to at least 2cm first and bigger if I can afford the space for them, to give them the best chance.

 

[Antoniakr]

Thank you for all the information i already know A lot about platys already Ive seen nearly everywhere that a 10 gallon tank is minimum for platys and The people at the pet shop who work with the aquatic area said that it should be okay to have 3-4 platys in it. I am wanting fry and im getting them a huge tank to live in, once they reach sexual maturity i am going to put a tank divider in with them and hopefully grow them out and sell them. Every now and then i will probably put the Male(father) in the larger tank, to give the females a break, do you think that would be a good idea or would it put stress on him?